Peanut Butter Granola

This is what we eat every day for breakfast.  I get complaints if we're out and there are only Cheerios.

The recipe is super flexible-- just about the only element that is non-negotiable is oats.  Don't like honey?  Use maple syrup!  Omit the peanut butter altogether!  Use any kind of nuts (just not salted).  When I'm feeling virtuous, I sometimes add a half cup of flaxseed meal to the honey mixture so I get in some Omega-3's.  When I'm not, I sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips over the baked granola. 

Biscuits and Bacon Gravy

This post was of course originally going to be about both the biscuits and the bacon gravy, but I botched my biscuits.  Bacon gravy, on the other hand.... mmm... bacon...

This is from my sister's college roommate, a native South Carolinian... this breakfast makes up for the entire existence of grits. 

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

A wonderful Sunday morning treat.  Pretty quick, too, unless the only non-stick skillet you own is a 6" one.  Then, not so much.  If you have a griddle, use it, or or just use a lot of butter on a regular large frying pan.

Butter and maple syrup is always good, of course, but my favorite thing on these is peanut butter.  It adds a little saltiness to the sweet, and is just amazing.

Soft oatmeal bread

This bread completely reaffirms my love of no-knead breads.  This is super tasty, but so much more work, and produces a completely different kind of bread.  It takes about 3 hours from start to finish, which is of course much faster than the no-knead kind, but also requires a solid 30-40 minutes of actual work time, plus WAY more cleanup.

It does make a really soft, fluffy bread, though.  I'm pretty sure it will make fantastic sandwiches. 

No-knead oatmeal bread

Another variation on no-knead bread; again, super easy and delicious. Kind of softer and chewier than whole wheat, and makes amazing sandwiches and toast.


1 c. rolled oats ('old-fashioned', NOT instant)
2 c. bread flour
1-1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. rapid rise yeast
1-1/3 c. water
1 T honey

Mix together dry ingredients; stir honey into water.

Stir sweetened water into flour mixture; dough should form into a shaggy ball.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap; let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours, until bubbly.

Stir dough to punch it down; glop it into a well-oiled loaf pan. Sprinkle top with more oats. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rise 2-4 hours, until doubled in size.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Bagels!

Or very nearly. They tasted like bagels, even if they didn't look like them.


This was, of course, my fault. Instead of starting with bagel dough, I had no-knead bread dough that I decided to make bagels with. Predictably, instead of staying in the bagel shape, it kind of blobbed back into amorphous rolls. Which I then boiled and baked.


Boiling is what makes bagels all nice and chewy; baking makes them crispy. I boiled each bagel for about a minute on each side (using the method from How to Cook Everything), then set on a rack to drain.

I then baked for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. The bagels were SO good, except for the very minor finger burns that resulted from trying to spread cream cheese on something that had just come out of the oven.

Eggs and toast!

Not a recipe... but this was weekend breakfast perfection. Eggs over easy and homemade toast.


Just look at the open crumb structure of the bread (Craig says that this was my best loaf of bread yet):